


Three Years

by lilyinblue



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, New Family, Parting Shot, Post-Season 3 Episode 13, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 23:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6349801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyinblue/pseuds/lilyinblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-03x13 - "Parting Shot"</p><p>Bobbi Morse was the oldest friend Mack had left in SHIELD, then one day she did something very brave, and he thought he lost his friend forever.</p><p>Three years later, Mack gets a message.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Years

**Author's Note:**

> I should be working on my season 2 coda, [Somewhere Normal](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4945522)... but the final scenes of "Parting Shot" just broke my heart. It put a lot of ideas in my head and I had to write them down.
> 
> This actually goes somewhere I don't usually like going in my fics... but the idea popped into my head and I had to do it. Hopefully it came out well!

**Three Years after the Parting Shot**

Mac strode into the Zephyr One command deck staring intently at the screen of his phone. "Yo, Tremors," he grumbled, approaching Daisy's seat. "I got something I don't like the looks of. I need you to look at it."

Fitz and Simmons both gave Mack a casual glance from where they were busily conferring over a tablet near one of the side consoles.

Mack tossed his phone to Daisy, who managed to deftly catch it. "Check the first message," he said. "It just showed up five minutes ago. Sender's unknown and it's got some sort of encryption on it. I've never seen anything like it. Something seems off about this."

That got Coulson and May's attention as well. They both looked up from their position near the center console.

"Something about a 'WCA' is the only identifier," Mack added as Daisy plugged the phone into her console. "That mean anything to either of you?" He asked, looking towards Coulson and May.

May frowned slightly and shook her head. Coulson's face expression remained curiously neutral. May gave Coulson a sidelong glance, but nobody else paid the lack of reaction any heed.

"Wow, this is weird," Daisy said, mostly talking to herself as her fingers raced across her keyboard. "Is that--? No... that's not it. What is encryption system? I've never seen anything like this..."

Intrigued by Daisy's lack of an immediate solution to decoding the message on Mack's phone, Simmons wandered closer to look over Daisy's shoulder. Fitz absently followed Simmons, but kept his attention focused on the tablet.

After ten minutes passed, Mack crossed the command deck to confer with Coulson and May while Daisy kept working. After another fifteen minutes, something on Daisy's console beeped. "I think I've almost got it," she announced to nobody in particular. She then picked up Mack's phone and frowned at it. "What the hell?"

When the last layer of encryption was lifted, a quick message flashed across the phone's screen before disappearing.

Simmons immediately leaned over Daisy's shoulder in curiosity. "Did that say..."

Daisy finished Jemma's thought for her. "It said... ' _thanks, Daisy.'_ That is seriously weird."

Fitz looked up upon hearing that, but Daisy hadn't spoken loudly enough to draw the attention of the three more senior agents across the room. None of them noticed the ghost of a smirk that was on Coulson's face, though.

Jemma and Daisy gave each other another look before Daisy punched a sequence of keys on the phone's screen. The formerly-encrypted message appeared and Daisy stared at it slack-jawed for a moment. Jemma squinted at the screen too before murmuring, "Oh my. Is that from--"

Daisy nodded in confirmation. "Yeah... yeah it is. God, it's been what? Three years?"

Fitz turned his attention away from his tablet again. "Wait. What is it? Who's it from?" He tried to peer at the phone, but both Daisy and Jemma blocked his view with their hunched shoulders.

"What does it say?" Jemma asked hurriedly, sounding as if she was on the edge of fretting. "Oh, I hope they're ok. To contact us out of the blue like this, it must be serious..."

"What is it? What's wrong?" Fitz asked again, more insistently.

"It doesn't say anything. There's just two attachments," Daisy frowned. She tapped the first attachment and a photo revealed itself on the phone's screen.

Upon seeing the photo, Jemma gasped and clapped both hands over her mouth. Her eyes began glistening with a sudden flood of emotion.

Daisy, on the other hand, was far less subtle. "Oh my god. _Oh my god!_ " She exclaimed, nearly squealing.

Coulson, May and Mack's heads all snapped up to stare at Daisy from across the room. Every other pair of eyes on the command deck followed in suit.

"What is it?!" Fitz asked a third time, nearly bouncing on his feet to see the phone. Daisy moved to hand the phone to Fitz, but Jemma snatched it out of her grip first.

"Sorry, Fitz," Jemma said sheepishly before turning to Daisy. "She sent it to Mack. Let him see it first." She paused, then awkwardly added, "... or third, as the case may be."

"All right, all right," Daisy relented. "Hey, Mack! Get your ass over here!"

Mack shot his partner one of those looks that likely translated to " _relax, woman"_ before crossing the command deck to retrieve his phone. Coulson and May followed close on his heels, both intrigued by Daisy's sudden outburst. 

"But... _who_ sent _what_ to Mack?" Fitz asked, mostly just to himself.

Daisy practically bounced up and down in her chair with excitement as Jemma handed the phone to Mack, tears of joy still shining in her eyes.

"Settle down, Tremors," Mack muttered before turning the phone screen on and looking at it.

When Mack laid his eyes on the photo on the screen, it was plainly obvious to everyone around him that the normally stoic man was overcome with emotion. Mack pressed the back of his fist against his mouth, as if trying to suppress everything that came flooding forth. It did nothing for his suddenly watery eyes, however.

Coulson's placid expression faded and he frowned, beginning to look concerned. May raised her eyebrows at Daisy and Jemma, as if demanding an explanation. From behind them, and sounding more worried about being left out of the loop, Fitz began to ask, "Wha-?"

Daisy grinned widely, but her voice was the opposite of her previously joviality. Instead it was quiet, almost in reverence of Mack's clear state of emotion. "It's from Bobbi."

"- Morse?" Fitz immediately asked.

"Of course, Fitz," Jemma chided.

May frowned, likely fearing the worst based on Mack's sudden show of emotion. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Daisy and Jemma both shook their heads.

"She's fine," Jemma assured.

"Can I show them?" Daisy asked gently, peering up at Mack. Her eagerness to spill the surprise was written all over her face.

He said nothing, but nodded quickly without ever lifting his eyes from the screen of his phone.

Daisy punched a few keys on her console and a copy of the photo Mack was staring at appeared on her main monitor.

Jemma grinned at the reveal, practically beaming at the picture in adoration.

Fitz's jaw simply dropped.

Coulson's eyes went wide in an expression of genuine surprise.

May breathed in slightly before breaking out in a rare, but honestly warm smile. She was the first to break the silence as she turned to Coulson. "Did you know about this?"

"I knew it was Morse as soon as Mack said WCA," Coulson was smiling now too. "But I didn't know about _this_."

Everyone returned their gazes to Daisy's screen. The photo was a selfie, as taken by Lance Hunter. He grinned, absolutely beaming, as he held the phone out in front of him to take the picture. He looked exactly the same as everyone remembered him, right down to the scruffy stubble. Bobbi sat in a bed beside Hunter, wearing a blue-patterned hospital gown and with a rumpled blanket over her lap. Her blue eyes positively sparkled as she gazed down at the pink-swaddled infant cradled in her arms.

"Bobbi looks so lovely," Jemma breathed. "She's just glowing."

"Hunter is too," Fitz added matter-of-factly.

"... there's nothing lovely about Hunter," May deadpanned.

Mack finally broke his silence and read the note on his phone that came with the photo. "Isabelle Mackenzie Hunter. Seven pounds, six ounces. Born yesterday morning at 10:42 am." He paused for a moment before adding, "Izzy." He smiled sadly to himself, as memories of dear friends, some lost and one fallen came flooding in.

"Little Izzy Mack," Daisy chimed in. "She's named after you too, big guy."

Coulson clapped Mack on the shoulder. "Congratulations, Mack. Looks like you're an uncle."

The gathered team went silent for a moment as they all gazed at the photo on the screen together.

"They've been gone longer than they were ever here, but I still miss them," Jemma admitted, sounding faintly choked up.

Everyone around her agreed with a chorus of nods and and sad admissions of agreement.

"Looks like they figured it all out in the end," May added, the wistfulness in her expression caught only by Coulson.

Simmons turned to Daisy. "You said there were two attachments?" She then turned to Mack, "Is it more pictures?"

Mack opened the other file with a tap of his finger. "Nah. Looks like a letter or something."

He began reading aloud. "Hi Daisy. Thanks for helping Mack decrypt this. Hunter told me to make it extra hard, just for you."

Daisy nodded in agreement, looking clearly amused at the thought that Bobbi and Hunter just knew she'd get her hands on their message first. "They did good."

Mack kept reading, "Tell everyone we say hello and that we're doing wonderfully, but we still miss you all. Now, I have to ask you to stop reading this. The rest is for--" He paused and took a deep breath. "It's for me," he explained a little sheepishly. "I'll um... I'll read it later." He quickly pocketed his phone.

No one questioned it and no one objected. The strength of the bond that once existed between Mack and their two departed friends, Bobbi in particular, was no secret. The day Bobbi and Hunter were disavowed, Mack hadn't just lost the last of his old-guard friends in SHIELD, he also lost a sister.

"Wait. Oh god" Daisy suddenly blurted out, sounding more horrified than happy. "You know what this means?"

May quirked an eyebrow at Daisy.

" _Lance Hunter..._ was actually allowed to reproduce!"

The gathered team immediately responded with snickers and grins. A hint of a smirk even briefly appeared on May's face.

"Man," Mack finally said, his demeanor mostly restored to that of his normal laid-back self. "That poor kid is screwed."

  
***

After the Zephyr returned to the Playground, Mack quietly slipped out of the hangar and disappeared into his bunk. Mack sat heavily down on his bed and pulled out his phone. He opened the photo of Bobbi, Hunter and their new baby again and gazed at it for several minutes. He was happy for them, truly, but he couldn't help but to feel a little heaviness in his chest. Seeing Bobbi and Hunter having so definitively moved on with their lives seemed to cement a finality on their absence. Reading the name beneath the photo, _Isabelle Mackenzie_ , he couldn't help but to let his thoughts drift to Isabelle Hartley as well. She was another old friend who was now gone, just with an entirely different kind of permanence. It felt strange for a new life to bring forth so many thoughts of loss.

Finally, he opened the second attachment on his phone. He chuckled again at the note for Daisy before proceeding to read the rest.

 _Mack_ ,

_If you had told me in the days before we left that Hunter and I would be starting starting a family in just a few short years, I wouldn't have believed you. If you told me the same thing ten months ago, I still don't think I would have. We didn't plan this, yet here we are._

_I had a lot to think about over the past nine months. I'll admit I spent a lot of time dwelling on all that I lost over the years. SHIELD became my family more than the one I was born with. Then, one by one, we lost them. Vic, Iz... I've been thinking about them a lot lately, and how suddenly one day, you were the only one left. I thought I'd find a new family in the new team... but then one day it was gone too, along with you. I never saw that coming._

_It's strange, really. I've seen so many horrible things, but none of them compared to the day I walked away from all of you. It was honestly the most terrifying day of my life... until today. I can truthfully say I've never been more scared than I am right now. But at the same time, I didn't even know that it was possible to be this happy._

_That's what I really wanted to tell you, Mack. I never saw this coming either, but I'm truly happy._

_It took me a long time after I left to learn to just live my own life, and to just live for myself. (Hunter, on the other hand, only took about ten minutes to adjust.) I was an agent, a soldier for my entire adult life. I gave all that I had and all that I was to SHIELD, to something bigger than myself. It was hard to wake up every day, not knowing what I was supposed to do, and not having a purpose. We got into a lot of trouble for awhile, then we got out of it, then we found more. You don't know how much I wish I could tell you about it. But, I found my way eventually. We found something new to fight for. I made a new life for myself, with Hunter and I against the world. I'm pretty sure I became a different person getting there._

_It's almost crazy to think about how it didn't last that long. Starting today, I'm a different person all over again. I can't just live for myself anymore. I have something new, something infinitely more important to live for, to fight for. I don't really know where we're going to go from here, as three instead of two, but I'm excited to find out._

_We took a lot of risks to do this, but I needed to tell you that Hunter and I brought our daughter into the world. I don't know if I'll be able to contact you again. I don't know if I'll ever see you again... and I don't know if you'll ever meet this amazing, beautiful baby girl... but I'll never stop hoping. Even as my new family grows, just know that I will always think of you as a part of it._

_With all my love,_  
_Barbara_

  
***

After reading the letter several times over, the weight lingered in Mack's chest, but it seemed lighter. He could find some peace in knowing she finally found hers.

A week later, he put in a request for a few days off. Coulson didn't even blink when he granted it.


End file.
